Cognitive Dissidents discussion
HiTEC
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Introducing Hi-TEC
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This sounds interesting/fun.BTW tENT, I finally got your new LP. I haven't had any spare time near my turntable in awhile, but I'm looking forward to hearing it.
It makes me think of The Big Band a bit. That is one of the records I have sadly lost (I lost almost all of my records, actually). Sorry to have been inactive. I am writing my thesis and have been through our second child's birth plus a period of pretty serious sickness. I will have more time in a month or so. I miss this discussion.
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Brian! Well.. There're still plenty of copies of "The Big Band" LP out there. I have hundreds of them. It certainly wasn't a best seller! I'm loath to mail them out these days though b/c it costs 3 times as much to mail them (even w/in the US) as it did to make them.
Actually, though, I'm self-consciously making this project considerably different from the 'Official' one alluded to above. The 'Official' Project's CAMUs consisted primarily of specific instructions of things to do & HiTEC's consist mainly of instructions about ways of THINKING about what we're doing. There is still overlap though.
I've started an orchestra. More specifically, I started something initially called "Sonic Aughts Union" wch has rapidly changed to "Hi-TEC (Histrionic Thought Experiment Cooperative)".
The original name was an homage to the pioneering sound arts group called "Sonic Arts Union" that consisted of Alvin Lucier, David Behrman, Gordon Mumma, & Robert Ashley. I had given a performance at the local main branch of the public library on the same bill as Rick Gribenas, Margaret Cox, & Steve Boyle. Each of us performed separate pieces. It reminded me of the Sonic Arts Union b/c each of us had strong personalities &, like the SAU, we weren't performing collaboratively.
This inspired me to propose the Sonic Aughts Union so that we cd 'correct' what I thought was a failing of the original SAU: their lack of collaboration. Rick & Steve responded enthusiastically, Margaret not at all. Then Steve stopped responding.
Then I decided to form SAU as an orchestra instead - something Neil Feather & I had come close to w/ the "Official Project" (we have one record out & many tapes) but not on as large a scale as I now want. hence, Hi-TEC.
The Official Project had 17 members at its largest. Hi-TEC now has 29. I'm aiming for 31. The Official Project had an elaborate system of approximately 60 cues called CAMUs (Cue Activated Modular Units). These CAMUs gave instructions about specific phsyical things to do under specific game rule circumstances. W/ Hi-TEC, I'm trying to take that to a different level by creating instructions that're about HOW TO THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE DOING - rather than just about what to physically do.
So far, we've had 5 rehearsals (broken into small groups for practicality's sake) that've involved: piano, guitars, effects pedals, feedback, cymbal, sampler, wave-table synthesizer; laptop, organ, vibres, floor stomping; snare drum, cymbals; alto sax; darbouka, Erector Set; bass clarinet; percusssion; homemade tongue drum; erhu; temple blocks & singing bowls; & tap dancing. Tonight is the 6th rehearsal & will probably involve piano; trombone; violin; & belly dancing.
Is Hi-TEC practicing Cognitive Dissidence? I'm trying. Take "Systems Management 08: Concerto":
"Everyone begins w/ free-form improvising, paying close attn to what everyone else is doing. ASAP, each player makes a generalization about what most commonly characterizes what everyone else is doing & tries to distinguish what they're doing from that generalization. Thus, everyone becomes a soloist based on their own notion of how everyone else provides a commonality background."
In a sense, Hi-TEC is a localized form of what neoism is a globalized form of: a mind game made physical.